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Born on [[April 3]], [[1908]], to Judge [[E. Dixie Beggs, Sr.]] and [[Lily Clubbs Beggs]], Beggs attended Pensacola public schools, where he excelled at debate and tennis. He began working at his father's firm as an office boy at age 13. He went on to the University of Florida, where he served in the university's ROTC program, and received his law degree in 1931.
Beggs practiced law in Pensacola, then served an eight-year term as state's attorney. He succeeded his father on the board of the [[First Bank & Trust Company]] and joined the [[Pensacola Rotary Club]], serving as its president from [[1934]] to [[19451935]]. His first wife, Sara Strickland, died in childbirth in [[1941]], and Beggs was wracked by depression. When the Japanese [[Wikipedia:Attack on Pearl Harbor|attacked Pearl Harbor]] on December 7, Beggs enlisted the next day. He served in the famed [[Wikipedia:88th Infantry Division (United States)|88th Infantry Division]] during its Italian campaign and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Returning home, Beggs reentered the legal profession and remarried to Margaret Walker Ridley, with whom he had two children, Caroline Cornelia and Dixie III. He became integral in the formation of [[Baptist Hospital]], which opened in [[1951]]. Initially the hospital's legal representative, he served as vice-president for 23 years before becoming president of the hospital's board of directors.